Vietnam’s Hoa Phat to Join Steel Biggies League with Set-up of Four Blast Furnaces by 2019

In 2017, Hoa Phat Group acquired Dung Quat steel complex in the central province of Quang Ngai’s Dung Quat Economic Zone from the Taiwanese investors who failed to develop the project as promised.

According to company sources, it plans to start the first blast furnace at the complex by Dec’18 for trials before gradually increasing run rates. It will subsequently attempt to start one blast furnace every quarter. The start-ups will be in two phases and will raise the capacity of the complex to 4.8 MnT per year by the end of 2019 and the company’s total capacity will also be increased to 6.8 MnT per year.

This will make Hoa Phat, the second-largest steel producer in the country after major integrated producer Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp, which has a total capacity of 7 MnT per year and it will also move Hao Phat into the ranks of the top 100 global steelmakers.
Hoa Phat Dung Quat’s steel supply will be consumed internally for downstream sheet production or for domestic sales.

The Italian steel production technology specialist Danieli has supplied four blast furnaces to the Hoa Phat’s Dung Quat steel complex and is responsible to design, supply and supervise the entire project. According to reports, Hoa Phat will have three continuous casters and two rolling mills producing 2 MnT per year of construction steel, including rebar in sizes of 10-40mm and wire rod of 5.5-16mm.

At present Hoa Phat has a works with the capacity of 2 MnT in Hai Duong under subsidiary Hoa Phat Hai Duong Steel, which mainly produces rebar and wire rod of grades SAE1008, SAE1015 and SWRM17. The Hai Duong facility has two blast furnaces each with a volume of 450 cubic meters and capacity of 850,000 tonnes of hot metal, as well as two basic oxygen furnaces of 1.15 MnT.

Hoa Phat’s latest performance

In the first eight months of this year, Hoa Phat manufactured 1.47 million tonnes of steel, up nearly 10 percent annually. Consumption in the central region and central highlands posted the highest growth of nearly 18%. Meanwhile, the traditional market in the north bought over 1 MnT during the period, up 8.9% year-on-year. Its traditional foreign markets include Australia, Cambodia, the U.S. and Malaysia while Canada is a new one.
From January-August, Hoa Phat Group exported nearly 119,000 tonnes, mostly steel and rolled steels SAE1008, SAE1015, SWRM17.

In 2017, Hoa Phat Group sold a total of 3 MnT of steel, including 2.2 MnT of construction materials, 600,000 tonnes of steel pipe and 200,000 tonnes of galvanized steel. According to Vietnam Steel Association, Hoa Phat’s production at the complex in Hai Duong has risen by nearly 18,000 tonnes per month from the beginning of this year and together with the first products at Dung Quat complex in the fourth quarter, Hoa Phat is expected to surpass its plan of selling 2.3 MnT this year.